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Yes, You Should Forgive And Forget: Here Are 6 Reasons Why
Forgive and forget is an oft-repeated piece of advice with biblical origins. Although it might seem trite, there's a reason this little phrase still gets uttered so often. There's true wisdom in forgiving and forgetting. When someone really hurts you, you may question whether you want to forgive someone; it may, in fact, seem utterly unnatural. But there are many reasons why it's sometimes better to forgive and forget, even if part of you doesn't want to. Here are just a few of them.
Forgiveness doesn't condone their actions.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was OK, and it doesn’t mean that person should still be welcome in your life. (Your boundaries still matter, and grudges can be part of forgiving.)
Forgiveness just means that you've made peace with the pain, and you are ready to let it go.
"There was a reason you came together, and there's a reason you are moving apart," psychologist Danielle Dowling, Psy.D., writes at mbg. "Acknowledge the good, the bad, and the beautiful from your time together and know that it all served an important purpose in both of your lives."
Forgiveness is not for other people.
Forgiveness is not something we do for others—it's something we do for ourselves.
Not forgiving someone is the equivalent of staying trapped in a jail cell of bitterness, serving time for someone else's crime. "It's a mixture of anger, depression, and blame. But most of all, the opposite of forgiveness is stagnation," psychologist Kristina Hallett, Ph.D., writes at mbg. "It's getting mired in an emotional place regarding a particular incident, and it prohibits future growth and discovery. ... There's a common saying: Not forgiving someone is like slowly poisoning yourself and secretly hoping the other person dies."
You make the choice to either dwell on the pain caused by others, or you can forgive and move on.
Forgiveness is a sign of strength.
Gandhi once said “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." It takes a strong person to face pain head-on, forgive, and release it.
"Your ability to forgive someone often has little to do with that person or what they did," Hallett says. "Merriam-Webster defines forgiveness as 'to cease to feel resentment against an offender' or 'to give up resentment of or claim to requital.' It's an internal state of being, and it's not dependent on anyone but you. The only person in control of your thoughts, feelings, and actions—and the only one who can make a shift occur—is you."
We also deserve forgiveness.
Hallett points out that our inability to forgive others can stem from an inability to forgive ourselves. The lack of acceptance for others may even fuel a lack of acceptance for ourselves.
Others deserve forgiveness, just like we do.
Forgiveness is healing.
"When we hold onto a resentment, grievance, shame, guilt, or pain from the past, our entire body-mind suffers," Deepak Chopra has told mbg. "Ultimately forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves. We can benefit from forgiving even if the person we forgive isn’t aware of our feelings or is even no longer alive."
To forgive someone is the highest, most beautiful form of love. You might just find that you get a sense of peace and happiness in return.
You'll get a pretty sweet bonus.
If none of the above appeals to you, then you might want to take the advice of Oscar Wilde:
“Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.”
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